Changes in Canvas as of 12/10/12

1. We’ve added a new button to the course navigation bar in Canvas called Holman Library.  It opens the HL page inside Canvas. 
2.  We also changed the Report a Problem link that appeared when you clicked on Help. Now it opens an email addressed to eLearning.  The text for the link says “If Canvas isn't working the way you think it should be, check with your professor first.  If they can't fix the problem, please email the eLearning office.”  We ask that they check with the professor before emailing us because we figure you’ll want to know if your students are having problems with Canvas.  Plus the question they have may be specific to a class and not a problem with Canvas.  For example, we can’t answer questions about how to do a specific assignment, course grading, the syllabus, etc.

Questions 11/17/12

Q:  I have a group assignment and I want to give each student their own grade.  How do I do that?

A:  Click on more options on the Edit Assignment page.  Put a check in the box next to "This is a group assignment."  A sub menu opens.  Put a check in the box next to "Assign grades to each student individually."

Q:  How do I set up extra credit in my gradebook?

A:  Add an assignment group and call it extra credit.  Decide how many points you want it to be worth.  Then determine what percentage that is of your total points.  For example, let’s say you want to give 10 extra credit points and you have 200 points in your class.  That works out to be 5%.  So make your extra credit assignment group worth 5% of the grade.  Add assignments to that group as needed.  The make the rest of your assignments total 100%.  Here are examples with weighted grades and not weighted grades. 

Weighted:

·         Group 1 50%

·         Group 2 25%

·         Group 3 25%

·         Extra Credit 5%

·         Total 105%

Not weighted:

·         Group 1 100%

·         Extra Credit 5%

·         Total 105%

 

 

Question 11/8/12

Q:  Is there an attendance function in Canvas like there is in Angel?

A:  There is no attendance function in Canvas.  But you can track activity by going to People, choosing the person you want to track, then clicking on the Student Analytics button on the right.  It will show you when that person viewed pages in your course so you can track logins that way.

Questions 10/19/12

Q: Is there a way to change the point value of quizzes imported from Angel without doing it one question at a time?  (When you import quizzes from Angel, the point value for each question is 0)

A: There is no way to change the point values of questions all at once.  One at a time is the only way.

Q:  I have an assignment set up for an online submission.  Because I want to use Crocodoc, I restricted the file types to .doc and .docx.  Now the students can't submit their documents.  What happened?

A:  When you restrict file types, don't use periods before the file types.  Type the file extension with a comma between each and no spaces.  It should look like this:  doc,docx,pdf

Q:   A test student has appeared in my gradebook.  Is there a way to delete it?

A:  As of now, no.  That happens when you to into your class using the student view.  Canvas is working on a solution that will delete test student when you exit that view.

Question 10/10/12

Q: I see an entry in my gradebook for Test Student.  It doesn't show up on my roster.  Can it be deleted?

A:  Test Student is created when you use the Student View in your course.  Currently it is added to the gradebook but not the roster (people). There is no way to delete or hide it.  That is a feature request so Canvas is looking into it.  We may see it go away in a future update.  As long as you don't enter grades for that student, it shouldn't affect your overall percentages.

Question 10/5012

Q: Can I restrict the release of modules to specific groups in Canvas.

A: You cannot.  You can control the release of assignments to a particular group but not modules.  Below is a proposed structrue.

Group 1 (module name and everyone in the class would see it)

·         Put all the assignments/lectures/etc. for group 1 in this module

·         Add everything as an assignment and restrict the assignment to group 1

·         Put lectures, etc in as non-graded assignments. 

Group 2 (module name and everyone in the class would see it)

·         Same here 

Group 3 (module name and everyone in the class would see it)

·         Same here

If you do it this way, all the groups will see the module names but only the members of a group will see their assignments.

Canvas Alert!  Canvas updates their product on a regular basis and that includes adding new features.   Most of the updates involve bug fixes and performance improvements but occasionally there are added or changed features.  It's reasonable to assume that one or more of your course functions will change during the course of a quarter. The adds/changes to features are desirable updates and come from the long list of users requests.  You can follow product updates here http://help.instructure.com/forums/337224-product-release-notes.  It's possible one or more of these changes may affect the way your students interact in your class. For this reason, it's advisable to add text similar to the following to your syllabus:

 "As the quarter progresses, Canvas may make updates that will change the way you interact in our class.  If that happens, I'll let you know what you need to do differently.  And I assure you that any changes will not affect your grade in the course.  Because these can happen at any time, it's critically important that you check your class regularly for update notifications.  Missing a notification will not be an excuse to miss assignments." 

Question:

Q:How can I delete students that have dropped my class?

A: Because of the way Canvas works, delete is now an admin function. It's part of our automatic daily updates.  We add newly enrolled students and remove those that have dropped.

Q:What is the latest update?

A: The latest update added a really neat feature.  It added a new file viewer that allows you to comment within a document submitted by your students as an assignment.   To use it, you have to set up an assignment with an online submission. Then only put a check next to Allow File Uploads.  Then, using more options, restrict the file type to Crocodoc supported types -- doc/docx, pdf, ppt/pptx and xls/xlsx.  Then when you go to Speedgrader and select your student, the submission will be visible in Crocodoc and you can make comments similar to track changes in Word.  This makes it unnecessary to download the file, use track changes and then upload the changed file. You can only use Crocodoc with supported file types.  If you forget to restrict the file types and a student submits an .rtf file for example, you will only be able to read the file but not comment in it.   You can still add comments in the grading comment box available with all assignments but they don’t appear on the document. Video demo available on the Canvas help site.